Rawlings Sport Business Management

Earlier this month, several of our Sport Business Management students participated in a marketing project for Sanders Sports Marketing and the St. Louis Blues. The students were charged with obtaining Blues fans’ opinions of the staircase billboards located throughout the Scottrade Center. It will be a few weeks before we know the results of the project, but our students are already being thanked for a job well done.

Chad Friend, Matt Bearly, Erik Carretero and Mike Hughes

“The help of your student team is much appreciated, both on behalf of Sanders Sports Marketing and the St. Louis Blues…We would love to work with your class to review some of my past sports marketing experiences from an entrepreneurs point of view and further discuss and listen to your inputs on how to proceed with leveraging what we have learned.” – Ron Sanders, CEO of Sanders Sports Marketing

There are few moments in sports as exciting as Game 7 of the World Series. Brittany Bommarito was one of three Maryville Sport Business Management students who worked for the Cardinals this season and got to experience the World Series first hand. We asked her to share her experience.

“There was an energy that was present as soon as you pulled into the parking lot and it lasted well into the night. Our schedules had to become more flexible as we entered into the postseason. Would we have to play all seven games in the series or would the series end early. Often we would not find out what time we worked until the day before the game. Sometimes we found out that morning.

It was definitely a unique experience to have been a part of. Most people don’t get to be part of a winning organization their first year, but I did. As the team got closer and closer to the World Series and then closer to winning the final game the fans changed as well. Most fans were more accepting of solutions to the problems that arose. For the most part they were nice and polite about going about getting it taken care of. They were happy to be at them stadium.

Another great experience that came out of this was being able to attend the Gala the night before game 1 of the World Series. It was amazing to see how quickly an organization like Major League Baseball can put together a successful event. The turnaround time for planning was minimal and yet it all ran smoothly.

We wouldn’t be in sports if there wasn’t at least a little superstition. I had the same CD playing in my car from the first day of playoffs until we won the World Series. At the stadium we had the rally squirrel and good luck cupcakes. Of course of Stub Hub rep who was joining us in the ticketing office every game always brought goodies him.

It was a great first season to be with the Cardinals looking forward to going back next season.”